July 3: Oloron--L’Hopital St Blaise
This morning’s baggage drop off journey took us right by the ‘closed’Lindt chocolate factory and into our day’s parking lot where, much to our surprise, we bought a fresh baguette from a vending machine.
Our actual hike took us past a 12th century Roman church called l’Eglise Saint-Blaise de l’Hopital and onto the Chemin De Saint Jacques De Compostelle en France both of which are UNESCO heritage sites. The trail was a rugged, difficult climb past many interesting flowers, trees, an ancient mill and a few working farms. All our hard work and pain (including a wasp bite for Laurel) paid off when we arrived at our turn around spot to find out we were above the clouds. The sounds of thunder however, speeded up our descent where we enjoyed a delicious lunch at this evening’s accommodation.
The sun broke through after lunch making the afternoon too hot to walk so we went to the next town to replenish our larder. Following a short afternoon siesta, we hit the trail again, this time going in the opposite direction of the morning’s hike. This part of the trail was not as enjoyable and was cut short by a strange noise in the woods and the fact that, first of all, I and then Jim and Laurel found many small tick-like beetles on my pink shirt and in my white hair. Back in the parking lot Laurel discovered a real tick embedded in her thigh. Quick showers and body checks found no further hitchhikers on any of us. I think I can safely say that this has not been Laurel’s favourite day.
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